Critical thinking as an aspect of reflective teaching : implication for the management of teacher competence

M.Ed.This study forms part of a greater, ongoing research project concerning teacher competence and its assessment. The project focuses on researching teacher opinion on teacher competences by the initial research. This research project is a group project initiated to investigate teacher competence, its measurement and the implication thereof for school effectiveness and improvement. The following factors were identified namely the learning environment, professional commitment, order and discipline, educational foundation, reflection, cooperative ability, effectiveness and management styles. What does the basic rights of education mean against the background of the past? Superordinate goals aim at improving matriculation results. The aim is to change the public school into a community school which means increased parental involvement. This could be done by legitimising civic groups. The problem facing the present educational system is to strategise and develop interest, remedy the lack of motivation, increase trust, and develop relevant management skills. The constitution guarantees equal access to basic education. Inequalities in education must be redressed. The principles include the development of independent and critical thinking. The overall aim is lifelong education and training of good quality. This would increase teacher competence. Teachers should Professor Bengu (1995:1) in the Hunter's Report commented that this present education system was the most fractured and inequitable on the face of the earth. Nevertheless the Hunter Report seems safe to assume that the commitment in the White Paper to ten years of free and compulsory education would satisfy the constitutional requirements of the right to basic education at this stage of our country's development. However teachers are seen as "aliens" by the school and community as they do not participate in village or farm life. The professional life of a teacher presents few challenges because they do not have access to ownership of land. Teachers have little legitimacy in their communities. The Hunter Report recommended that public schools entertain a partnership funding approach balancing the demand of the four key principles namely attaining equity, redressing past imbalances, advancing equality and improving efficiency. The Hunter Report suggested that training relevant to personnel should be established by an Educational Management Information System and an Educational Management Training Institute. Factors which could possibly have contributed to the poor matriculation results at the schools were evident in a summary of the Examiner's Reports(Education Bulletin, ex House of Representatives, 1995 : 345). These include many candidates who lack basic examination techniques that should have been taught and consolidated in Standard Nine. All the work in the syllabus was not covered. All this points to some form of teache